this post was submitted on 11 Jan 2025
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The death of Bram Moolenaar, Vim founder and benevolent dictator for life (BDFL), in 2023 sent a shock through the community, and raised concern about the future of the project. At VimConf 2024 in November, current Vim maintainer Christian Brabandt delivered a keynote on “the new Vim project" that detailed how the community has reorganized itself to continue maintaining Vim and what the future looks like.

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[–] [email protected] 59 points 1 week ago (3 children)

..Neovim anyone?

(Bless his soul, tho, that goes without saying)

[–] PushButton 16 points 1 week ago (2 children)

For some reasons, each time I try neovim I go back to vim due to the performance.

And each time I am retrying, the worse it is.

What's the real benefits of neovim I ask myself? I got a fast editor and I am not a "plugin addict". I got my editor and all what I really want is edit text...

[–] Static_Rocket 10 points 1 week ago

I'm the same way. Honestly I just like the built in terminal emulator for those few times I forget to open tmux first. Not a fan of the lua integration. Makes the initial startup slower for my config.

[–] [email protected] -3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

How do you even notice performance issues in a cli editor? 🤨

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 week ago

Some features/plugins can be quite taxing on the system and in extreme cases it can slow the editor down to the point of being unusable. I’m a happy Neovim user with a LazyVim setup, but I experience this extreme slowdown for some JSON files and I haven’t looked into it yet to see what causes it.

You can let your editor do the same compute intensive or memory hogging things that a GUI editor does. The fact that it runs in your terminal doesn’t make it lightweight by definition.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Nah, neovim made too many breaking changes and prioritizes the wrong things. I'd much rather the spirit of vim continue, albeit with a better organizational structure.

[–] nialv7 8 points 1 week ago

Curious: what are the wrong things it had prioritised?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 week ago

I use Neovim, love their Lua direction.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Saved the video for later, but does anyone have a synopsis of the recco? Is switching to neovim the answer or are they taking the vim repo in a specific direction?

[–] thenextguy 26 points 1 week ago (3 children)

I scrubbed through it quickly.

First half is about housekeeping, history, funding, etc.

Second half is about future directions and it seems conservative. No huge changes planned, other than a new website. :) Discussed encouraging new developers, polling users for what to do next, maintaining quality.

Ended with some q&a.

9.2 will include XDG (.dotfiles) and Wayland support.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

What does wayland support mean in the context of vim? Like wayland clipboard or what?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago

One should probably search the commits for wayland but I am on mobile right now:

https://github.com/search?q=repo%3Avim%2Fvim+wayland&type=issues

Appears to be the GUI version and the clipboard support, yes.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago

.. and your reply.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago
[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Thank-you for that question ..

[–] [email protected] -2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I've pasted it into an AI video summarizer and got the following.

The Evolution of Vim After Bram Moolenaar: A Year of Change and Continuity

By Albert HarmonPublished December 8, 20244 min readTechnology

TLDRThis blog post discusses the significant changes in the Vim community and project following the passing of its founder, Bram Moolenaar. It covers the transition of leadership, the restructuring of maintainers, ongoing development, and future directions for Vim, emphasizing community involvement and the importance of maintaining the project's legacy.

In August of last year, the Vim community faced a profound loss with the passing of its founder, Bram Moolenaar. This event marked a pivotal moment for the Vim project, prompting a reevaluation of its leadership and future direction. In this post, we will explore the changes that have occurred in the Vim community and project since that time, highlighting the efforts to maintain continuity while also embracing new contributors.

Who Am I?

I have been an active member of the Vim community since around 2006, contributing to various aspects of the project, including bug reports, code patches, and feature enhancements. My journey began with simple contributions and evolved into more significant features, such as the GN text object and improved encryption support. After a period of reduced activity due to personal and professional commitments, I became one of the main maintainers of Vim following Bram's passing.

The Impact of Bram's Passing

Bram Moolenaar was not only the founder of Vim but also its guiding force for nearly 30 years. His extensive knowledge and vision for the project were invaluable. Following his death, the community faced the challenge of continuing the project without his leadership. The initial silence on the Vim mailing list raised concerns about the project's future, prompting discussions among the remaining maintainers about how to proceed.

Restructuring the Leadership

Before Bram's passing, the Vim project had three main maintainers: Bram, myself, and Ken. With Bram's absence, we needed to restructure the leadership. We decided to follow GitHub's deceased user policy, which allows for the continuation of a project when a maintainer is no longer active. However, this process proved complicated, requiring paperwork and access permissions.

Fortunately, Bram's family granted us the necessary access rights, enabling us to invite new maintainers to the project. Notable new contributors included Yapan, Dominic P, and Duck KS, who brought their expertise and long-standing commitment to the Vim community.

Managing Project Resources

The Vim project encompasses more than just source code; it requires management of various resources, including the Vim homepage, domains, email accounts, and security reporting. The homepage, which had been hosted on SourceForge, faced issues that necessitated a move to a more reliable hosting solution. We successfully migrated the homepage to a new host, ensuring it was updated to modern standards.

Additionally, we addressed the management of domains and SSL certificates, ensuring that all resources were secure and accessible. The transition also involved retiring the outdated FTP server, as modern users typically download software directly from the homepage or GitHub.

Community Engagement and Charity Work

Bram was known for his charitable work with the ICCF, which supports children in Uganda. After his passing, we continued to support this cause, with Vim users generously donating over €90,000 in the past year. We maintained the donation links on the Vim homepage, ensuring that contributions were directed to the ICCF.

Development and Future Directions

Despite the challenges, development on Vim has continued actively. After Bram's passing, we saw a spike in commits as we gained access to the repository and began addressing the backlog of pull requests. The release of Vim 9.1 marked a significant milestone, concluding the Vim 9 class support that Bram had been working on.

Looking ahead, we aim to maintain a balance between introducing new features and preserving the stability and backward compatibility that Vim is known for. The community's involvement is crucial, and we encourage contributions in various forms, from bug reporting to documentation and feature development.

Conclusion

The past year has been a transformative period for the Vim project. While we mourn the loss of Bram Moolenaar, we are committed to honoring his legacy by ensuring that Vim continues to thrive as a community-driven project. We invite all users and contributors to engage with us, share their ideas, and help shape the future of Vim.

If you enjoy using Vim, please consider supporting the ICCF, as there are many who would benefit from the opportunities that education and resources can provide. Thank you for being part of the Vim community.

[–] GreenAppleTree 8 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Said AI needs to learn the difference between summary and transcription.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago

Anything is better than having to watch a video that should have been a blog post